Even the most experienced can be caught out in heavy weather, especially on long ocean passages but also, sometimes, when on shorter offshore trips or even coastal sailing.
Regaining control in severe weather is only possible with proper storm sails, made for these extreme conditions. Dedicated storm sails allow you to act proactively:
A Storm Trysail is a small triangular sail with a ‘droopy’ clew that is hoisted by a halyard on the mast and is sheeted independent of the boom. It is preferable to use a separate track on the mast to avoid the potential danger of removing your mainsail in heavy weather conditions.
By using Storm Jibs in heavy weather conditions the centre of effort is reduced which means less heeling and better steering. Many cruising sailors purchase a Storm Jib sail one size larger than required so it can double as an inner staysail for use in windy areas.
A Gale Sail is a Storm Jib that simply hoists over the top of a furled headsail meaning that the furled sail doesn’t need to be removed. It can be hoisted with the spinnaker halyard or a spare jib halyard.
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Storm conditions at sea are defined by the Beaufort scale from mean wind speeds of 48 knots and more. These sails are also used in gale force conditions, gale being Beaufort 8 or above 30 knots.
But these are all just guidelines. In practice, what we term as storm sails would be used in any heavy weather situation where your usual working sails do not function adequately anymore. Be it that the last reef in the main still leaves it too large, or that your furling headsail cannot cope and that there is the real danger of unintentional unfurling due to the huge pressure, further increased by the usually bad shape that part-furled headsails have. Or maybe even that your suit of working sails is worn and weak and will tear under these conditions.
For these reasons it is more than just prudent for every true ocean passage making yacht to carry a full set of purpose made storm sails. The yacht must be able to survive severe conditions either by being sailed actively or by other applied storm tactics, in any case it will be important to be able to keep control, which is only possible with storm sails. On the other hand, storm sails can also be used in less severe conditions serving as a substitute for damaged sails, or as a form of de-powering the yacht for whichever reason.
A trysail is set abaft the mast, often on a dedicated track, otherwise using the mainsail track. However, for this the mainsail actually has to be detached from its rack which is a real downside. A third option would be to rig a temporary stay abaft the mast by using the very tightly set main halyard on which the luff of the trysail can then be hanked on.
The trysail is usually set without the boom, with sheets leading aft to spinnaker blocks or similar. This makes it safer, with the boom lashed firmly to the deck. It is also very useful for lying hove-to, but this would best be checked and practised with your boat in not so extreme weather.
The storm jib will usually be hanked-on to an inner (cutter) forestay. For sloop rigged yachts without a dedicated cutter or other inner forestay, we have the very useful option of our Gale Sail that will slide over the furled Genoa.
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